Counterpoint of Armand St Just
by Kristen no Delaunay
Summary: A musical tribute to Armand and Louise, of Scarlet Pimpernel fame.


[The only thing I've got now. Based on "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" by  
Simon and Garfunkel.]  
The Counterpoint of Armand San Just  
  
EXT: Night, PARIS, 1791. The boudoir of LOUISE L'ANGEE. ARMAND lies  
half-clothed in a bed with rumpled sheets beside a likewise garbed  
LOUISE as she lies sleeping on her stomach, red-gold curls and downy  
bangs dripping down her back. Through a frosted window the moon is seen  
over the Parisian streets.  
  
ARMAND, in a gentle, rough whisper:  
I can hear the soft breathing of the girl that I love  
As she lies here beside me, asleep with the night  
  
He rises from the bed, beginning to dress.  
   
ARMAND (VO)  
And her hair in a fine mist floats on my pillow  
Reflecting the glow of the winter moonlight  
  
He opens a back window and slips out into a dirty alley, leaving a  
letter in red ink on her vanity.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
But I've got to creep down the alley way  
  
He lands catlike in the alley.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
Fly down the highway  
  
Motionless back shot from below as he tears down a narrow street on a  
bay stallion.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
Before they come to catch me I'll be gone  
  
EXT: CHAUVELIN hears news of escaped prisoners at his office, where he  
sits in frustrated, overworked insomnia.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
Somewhere they can't find me  
  
EXT: A Parisian house, where Armand slows and stops his horse, nods to  
SIR TONY and SIR ANDREW, who wake fully and go to a hidden door in the  
place, from behind which several aristocrats emerge. The members of  
League get them on horses and disguised, and the whole of them ride off.  
  
EXT: The boudoir. LOUISE wakes, startled by something. She pulls on a  
white robe, looking with nervous fright around for ARMAND, rising and  
moving swiftly to her vanity, opening the letter.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
Oh baby, you don't know what I've done  
I've committed a crime; I've broken the law  
  
She finishes the letter and glances at a cartoon cut from an English  
paper, with French guards raving drunk from the blood of their dead  
aristocrats. Red-gold brows furrowed, she suddenly realizes that he has  
departed yet again for actions of the League, which she has been aware  
of for a measure of time after being rescued by them.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
While you were here sleeping and just dreaming of me  
I've help up and robbed a liquor store  
  
She lights a candle and burns the cartoon, holding the letter to her  
breast as she moves to the window  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
But I've got to creep down the alley way  
Fly down the highway  
  
EXT: ARMAND and the others ride to a harbor.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
Before they come to catch me I'll be gone  
  
An English flag flies over the ship he pulls up his horse at.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
Somewhere they can't find me  
  
He send the men and stolen prisoners on board, preparing swiftly, and  
setting sail nigh-as-soon as they are on. He moves to the prow, staring  
at his hands as they rest on the railing.  
  
ARMAND  
Oh my life seems unreal, my crime an illusion  
  
Ext: CHAOS' REALM. CHAOS chews on the feathered tip of a scarlet quill,  
a manuscript clutched in a burgundy-taloned hand.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
A scene badly written in which I must play  
  
DEATH, standing by the Red Goddess' throne, gives Her A LOOK.  
  
And though it puts me uptight to leave you  
  
Ext: At the prow, ARMAND grips the railing so hard as to drive  
splinters beneath his fingernails, and stares with mourning and self-  
loathing as the French coast vanishes from view.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
I know it's not right to leave you  
The morning is just a few hours away  
  
TIME elapses, and the sun rises as they appear on the English coast.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
But I've got to creep down the alley way  
  
The men and prisoners deboard, and SIR PERCY walks towards them from  
the dock from where he'd been waiting for their arrival. He and ARMAND  
embrace, and ARMAND says some simple thing to him which we cannot hear.  
PERCY looks distantly up at the high cliffs above and the road leading  
to Blakeny Manor, and nods to ARMAND once.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
Fly down the highway  
  
EXT: ARMAND is inside the great house, moving down the corridors on one  
of the upper floors.  
  
ARMAND (VO)  
Before they come to catch me I'll be gone  
  
He enters MARGUERITE'S room, bowing with a plaintive sort of formality,  
before she rushes forward and embraces him, making him grin. She asks  
him where he has been, though we do not hear the words. He stares  
vaguely out the window and replies, though we do not hear it, and says  
it with a smile, petting a white kitten sitting on Marguerite's vanity  
absently.  
  
LOUISE  
Somewhere  
  
The side of the view with MARGUERITE and the kitten fades to black, as  
does the background, leaving ARMAND standing alone, looking off to the  
left.  
  
ARMAND  
They can't find me  
  
EXT: PARIS, LOUISE stands at the window of her boudoir, clutching the  
letter, staring at the moon, and unseeingly at the overlap of the lone  
ARMAND. This letter she did not know was not only to be a warning of  
his current activities, but also a parting, until that if or when he  
could come again. If he did, he swore to make her his wife and bring  
her to England with him.  
  
She looks down at her hands and turns away from the window, and ARMAND  
and the moon both fade to black.  
  
She hopes he will return soon.  
  
FADE TO BLACK.  
  
END. 


End file.
